What really happened at Amritsar?

By Sarabjit Pandher

RAJA SANSI AIRPORT (Amritsar), DEC. 31. While the week-long ordeal following the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Airbus A- 300 has ended, possible ``failures'' of the authorities and counter-arguments about strategies which could have been adopted to deal with the situation at this airport have been doing the rounds here. The most asked question is: ``Could flight IC-814 have been prevented from leaving Amritsar?''

The State police have justified their calculations regarding the situation, which according to them was the ``only way out'' keeping in mind the security of the passengers and the members of the crew.

Senior officers of the Punjab Police have discounted the possibilities of a forced prevention of the flight from taking off from Amritsar, without jeopardising the lives of hostages and serious damage to the aircraft. Not only do they claim that there were no clear instructions from the Crisis Management Group (CMG), which was meeting in Delhi, the State police also did not have equipment or trained personnel required to deal with such exigencies.

Though sketchy information regarding what transpired between the Amritsar ATC and the pilot of IC 814 is available, the communication between the ATC, senior officers of the Punjab Government and CMG, remains closely guarded, giving rise to speculation. Reports indicate that while the CMG was closeted in Delhi, a State-level CMG was in contact with Amritsar and Delhi. It is being argued that had the members of State CMG left for Amritsar, it could have contributed more to the panic, in the absence of a channel for instructions.

A senior officer in the Police headquarters in Chandigarh asked, ``Had we resorted to blockading the aircraft, without specific instructions to do so, whose responsibility would it have been if there was loss of lives?''

He also dismisses arguments that the tyres of the aircraft could have been deflated. He says, ``there are 16 tyres on such planes. We would have had to shoot series of bullets at them to damage them beyond use. What would have been the reaction of the hijackers once they heard gunfire? They could have even thought we were storming the aircraft.''

The police officers and the officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), said that the only way to delay the take off was a slow fuelling process, the progress of which had been stalled by Delhi. The officers also feel that the delay in the appearance of the fuel tanker could have created a suspicion in the minds of the hijackers, which would have spurred a sudden take off.

According to information from sources and accounts of eyewitnesses, the sequence of the events of on the fateful day was:

At about 6-35 p.m. the aircraft is seen hovering over Amritsar and the ATC refuses permission to land but subsequently allows following a distress message from the pilot, who tells the ATC that he has barely 20 minutes of fuel on board. At 7-01 p.m. the plane lands and contact is established with the pilot.

A posse of commandos of the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) takes position as the plane lands on tarmac 34 and comes to a halt at the far end of the runway, which is not well-lit and is quite far from the floodlight apron area. In his first message, the pilot conveys the hijackers' demand for refuelling the plane. Immediately, a senior officer of the AAI is seen making preparations for refuelling, while a message is also sent to Delhi asking for instructions.

At 7-10 p.m. the first contact with Delhi is established when the Cabinet Secretary calls up giving no specific instructions except asking the officers in the control tower to ensure that refuelling is delayed to prolong the matters. Ten minutes later the pilot conveyed an impression that the hijackers were beginning to lose patience and wanted to know the reasons for not commencing the refuelling. ATC informs him that as there was no scheduled landing of any aircraft on that day, making arrangements to meet the sudden demand would take time.

The ATC is told that the five hijackers are armed with AK-47s, grenades and revolvers. And in the course of the next 10 minutes four messages are flashed by a panicked pilot, that four passengers had been killed, while security officials who had surrounded the aircraft did not hear any gun shot.

Frightened officers in the control tower contact Delhi again but are asked to carry out the previous set of instructions. The plane suddenly took a half-turn and faced the north-south direction.

At about 7-40 p.m. the plane takes another turn of 180 degrees and faces south and after about 10 minutes it surprises everybody with a takeoff without seeking clearance from the ATC or using the entire length of the runway. It just missed the fuel tanker, which had been stationed on the runway awaiting instructions.

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